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Child killer Farquharson's appeal fails

Belinda Merhab

Robert Farquharson wanted to get back at his ex-wife when he drove their three boys into an icy Victorian dam and left them for dead.

He wanted to hurt her by taking away what she treasured most.

He succeeded.

Cindy Gambino wailed when she was told Farquharson had lost an appeal against his conviction for the murders of their sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, on Father's Day in 2005.

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Her husband, Stephen Moules, smiled as he comforted her.

"One thing and one thing only, guys. We're very, very pleased with the outcome," he told reporters outside the Court of Appeal on Friday.

Farquharson, 43, has twice been convicted by Victorian Supreme Court juries of murdering his sons, after he successfully appealed his first conviction in 2009.

He appealed his second conviction in May, arguing the jury should have had the option of convicting him of manslaughter because he had negligently driven with a respiratory condition that made him a risk on the road.

His lawyers argued evidence from a key witness, his friend Greg King, should not have been relied upon because it was inconsistent.

Mr King gave evidence that in the months before the murders, Farquharson had told him he was angry his ex-wife was moving on with another man and complained of the child support he had to pay.

He said he would "pay her back big time" by killing the children.

Court of Appeal President Chris Maxwell and Justices Peter Buchanan and David Harper said it had been open to the jury, on the whole of the evidence, to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of Farquharson's guilt.

They said the defence had not suggested at any stage during Farquharson's two trials that the jury should be directed to consider the alternative charge of manslaughter.

"In our view, the jury were entitled to view (Farquharson's) apparent lack of interest in, and absence of distress about, the fate of his children as consistent with, and confirmatory of, the crown case and as wholly inconsistent with the deaths having been accidental," the court said.

"It strained credulity that a father who (on his own version) had accidentally caused the death of his three children should have been so extraordinarily calm and considered when questioned about the drownings in the immediate aftermath."

Mr King said he would always live with the fact that had he taken Farquharson's comments seriously and reported them to police, the boys would still be alive.

"His words will be with me until my dying day," he said in a statement.

Farquharson has been sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 33 years.